Vegan Diet and Testosterone: Make Plant-Based Work for You

There’s this common notion related to plant-based diets that they would lower testosterone levels in men and make them less masculine.

In fact, one recent study examined the popular view about men who are vegans and vegetarians, and came to the conclusion that the general public does view meat eaters “more masculine”. Many men also report feeling more manly when eating meat, and some stick to meat-based meats in fear of not being labeled feminine by other people…

The general consensus of the research, however, suggests that plant-based diets could lead to somewhat lower free and total testosterone levels and higher SHBG relative to omnivores.

BUT, this doesn’t mean that you could not thrive with plant-based diets while sporting high testosterone levels. In fact, I would make an argument for the fact that carefully crafted plant-based diet could easily be superior to the normal Western diet in terms of testosterone production, overall health, and masculinity.

(with that being said, I myself am not a vegan, and I do eat and often recommend my readers to consume some meat-products and dairy-products for health and hormone boosting reasons. So surely you can call me biased if you want, but I’m going to try to be as objective here as possible).

Let’s take a closer look at this topic:

The Good and The Bad of Vegan Diets for Testosterone

Generally speaking, plant-based diets have lots of good stuff going for them in terms of working favorably for testosterone production.

So really, one can’t say that vegan diets would be bad for testosterone production just because they are plant-based. The effect your nutrition has on testosterone production has everything to do with proper intake of the right types and ratios of macronutrients and getting all of the key micronutrients in, not so much about whether you do eat animals, or plants, or both.

With that being said, the typical plant-based diet with its high amount of PUFAs and fiber, low intake of calories, low intake of cholesterol, and too low amount of some key micronutrients and amino acids, can easily hurt your testosterone levels. It’s pretty easy to fix though…

…Below are four ways to turn the average piss-poor vegan diet into a testosterone powerhouse.

1. Simply Eat More

One of the main reasons why any kind of diet can reduce testosterone levels is if you don’t eat enough.

And this easily happens on a vegan diet, since plant-based foods tend to be much lower on calories than animal-based foods.

…Unfortunately, in times of famine, one of the first ones to slow down are the reproductive and endocrine systems, and with this, testosterone production often significantly declines.

One 7-year study compared men who restricted their calories (1350–2415 kcal/day) and ate very “clean” against sedentary subjects, who ate a normal Western diet with higher caloric intake (2145-3537 kcal/day). Due to their restrictive caloric intake, the group of men that ate lower amounts of calories had 31% lower testosterone levels, despite the fact that they maintained a “clean diet” and practiced running on a regular basis.

2. Stop Eating so Much PUFAs

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are often hailed as “healthy fats”.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

These types of fats contain long chains of unstable carbon-carbon bonds which are prone to damage when they get in contact with heat, light, or oxygen (two of these being plentiful in the body). When the fatty acids are oxidized, they become “rancid” and break down into harmful free radicals, which then start affecting your health. This process is called “lipid peroxidation“.

In studies of nutrient-hormone interactions, the strongest testosterone lowering type of macronutrients are in fact; PUFAs.

3. Make Sure You Get Enough Fat-Soluble Vitamins

One reason why many people avoid vegan diets is that they believe this would make them deficient in essential nutrients.

To counter-effect this, many vegans will rush to the site claiming that you can get everything you ever need from plant-based foods and that in fact, plants are more dense in micronutrients than animal products would be.

Whereas people who eat the basic Western diet, will likely get somewhat sufficient amounts of these, but lack on the other micronutrients more dense in plants.

The best solution would, of course, be to eat a balanced diet that incorporates foods from both worlds, but if you’re set on the fact that you will not eat any animal products, and thus skip the meat, eggs, liver, and milk (which are the primary sources for these fat-soluble vitamins)…

…Your best option would be to supplement daily with the following;

An active retinoic form of vitamin A – 2000-5000IU

Vitamin E in mixed tocopherols – 500-2000mg

Vitamin K2/D3 liquid – 5-10 drops

You should be taking all of these with some dietary fat for absorption (coconut oil being the best option for vegans), or you can also apply them topically to the skin if you have them as liquid supplements and want to take them without any dietary fat/meal.

4. You Don’t Need so Many Grains and Fiber

Sure I don’t want to lower myself to the level of health-nut mommy-bloggers by claiming that grains and fiber would kill us…

…(You know, these people who have read the “Wheat Belly” book and are now converted to grain-o-phobia).

But I do think that an optimal testosterone boosting diet isn’t one completely filled with processed grain and fiber.

This goes for both plant-based and meat-based diets, but more so for the vegan crowd since the typical food choices on a plant-based diet are rich in grains and fiber.

I’m definitely not recommending neurotic avoidance of grains and fiber. Just don’t get the bulk of your carbohydrates from them and preferably don’t go much over the recommended ~30 grams of fiber per day.

Conclusion on Vegan Diets and Testosterone

As you can see, plant-based diets don’t necessarily have to be bad for testosterone production, although some people will gladly tell you so.

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